Wildlife Promise » leveeshttp://blog.nwf.org
The National Wildlife Federation's blogTue, 03 Mar 2015 21:35:34 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.9.2Wildlife Friendly Solutions to Flooding and Other Water Challengeshttp://blog.nwf.org/2013/06/wildlife-friendly-solutions-to-flooding-and-other-water-challenges/
http://blog.nwf.org/2013/06/wildlife-friendly-solutions-to-flooding-and-other-water-challenges/#commentsFri, 21 Jun 2013 19:55:17 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=81468Read more >]]>Imagine your house regularly floods when the local river leaves its banks after a heavy rain. Now imagine that your Congressman announces a plan to build a levee along the river to protect you and your neighbors, and even better, the federal government is picking up more than half of the tab for this multi-million dollar levee. The decision is made and the levee is built.

Fast forward 10 years. Your house has not flooded since the levee went up, but neighborhoods upstream and downstream that never flooded before are now beginning to flood because your new levee is pushing the water you used to get in your basement, into their basements. You also notice that the fishing is not nearly as good in the river. This is because the new levee cut off the fish from their favorite rearing and spawning pools that would form in the river’s floodplain after a heavy rain. With the levee in place, the river is cut off from its floodplain and those fish nurseries have dried up. Even the bald eagles that you used to love watching fish in the river have moved on. You figure they don’t come around anymore, having just as much luck fishing as you do since the levee went up.

This hypothetical is real – but we can fix it

Unfortunately this story is not just in our imaginations. Time and time again the federal government sponsors levees and other large structural projects like sea walls and dams that solve a water challenge, but create a whole host of other public safety and wildlife impacts.

Fortunately America can do better. We have the ingenuity and knowhow to create a different future for our rivers and communities vulnerable to flooding. Instead of the federal government sponsoring a levee, strong new federal water planning guidelines could require the government to utilize nonstructural and restoration approaches to address river flooding. So instead of a levee, the federal government could restore wetlands along the river, which naturally store flood waters, and have the added benefits of cleaning water, and providing wildlife habitat.

Let’s go back in time again to when your Congressman is working with the federal government on solving your flooding problem. This time, instead of the levee, the federal government, guided by stronger federal water guidelines, chose to convert an abandoned industrial park along the river into wetlands.

Now fast forward 10 years. The wetlands are in place and you notice that the fishing is better! You also have a boardwalk through the new wetlands, which is your favorite place to see a nesting pair of bald eagles that just moved in, because the fishing is so good. And your neighboring towns have less flooding and cleaner water with more fish.

These better restoration solutions can become a reality in communities all over the country, but we need stronger federal water planning guidelines to get us there. National Wildlife Federation has been working for more than a decade on new federal water planning guidelines that require low impact, restoration and non-structural approaches to addressing flooding and other water challenges when those measures could provide an appropriate level of protection or benefits. But the White House’s latest “draft Interagency Guidelines” do not include this requirement.

Take Action for Clean Water and Wildlife!

Fortunately it is not too late to make a difference! The White House is taking comments until Thursday June 27th on new “draft Interagency Guidelines” where they can, if they choose to, include this requirement.

Tell the White House that we don’t need to choose between a healthy environment and solving water challenges – that we need strong federal water guidelines that only allow levees and other structural projects to be built when nonstructural and restoration solution are not available.

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2013/06/wildlife-friendly-solutions-to-flooding-and-other-water-challenges/feed/1Will Senate Water Down Environmental Protections While the Midwest Floods?http://blog.nwf.org/2013/04/will-senate-water-down-environmental-protections-while-midwest-floods/
http://blog.nwf.org/2013/04/will-senate-water-down-environmental-protections-while-midwest-floods/#commentsTue, 30 Apr 2013 17:12:15 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=79709Read more >]]>After the Midwest experienced drought during the past several months and now the April showers are bringing May floods. Last week the Mississippi River crested five and a half feet above the flood stage in St. Louis, MO and will reach its peak further south in the state. The best defense for reducing the severity of floods is to prevent development in the floodplain.

The Army Corps of Engineers has the ability to protect cities from floods through vital water projects that are authorized by the Water Resources Development Act of 2013 (WRDA). The act authorizes water projects nation-wide and is designed to safeguard our water resources – from harbors to levees, wetlands to rivers. The bill has some ecosystem restoration priorities for the Everglades and Coastal Louisiana, and includes some positive environmental provisions such as levee stabilization. These portions are crucial to protect habitat and wildlife throughout the nation, and could provide relief for the flood-stricken regions throughout the Mississippi River watershed.

However well-intentioned this bill is, there are extremely dangerous sections that threaten the safety and well being of the environment and the public – two provisions in particular will steamroll an integral environmental review process that has been in place for over 40 years.

Meet the endangered interior least tern. These quirky, darting birds migrate from North America to Central and South America, and rely on areas along the Missouri, Ohio, Red, Rio Grande, and Mississippi river systems for breeding habitat. One particular spot they like to frequent is a wetland environment along the Mississippi River, where bald eagles nest, fish spawn and grow up, and the rare swamp rabbit can be spotted – the New Madrid Floodway.

1,600 Miles of Levees

The New Madrid Floodway is one of only four federally designated flood zones along the Mississippi River. The Floodway is walled off from the Mississippi River by levees, except for a quarter-mile gap at the bottom of the Floodway. This gap is precious. It is the only place in Missouri where the River can still reach its floodplain, and a rare gap in the nearly impregnable 1,600 miles of levees we’ve built on the banks of the lower Mississippi River from St. Louis all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. This rare and important river-floodplain connection sustains wetlands that filter water pollution, stores floodwaters to protect nearby river towns from flooding, and provides vital habitat for a large number of rare and endangered species like the interior least tern and the swamp rabbit.

But this precious and rare floodplain is in danger.

The rare swamp rabbit is found within the New Madrid Floodway. Its dense fur acts to repel water, making it possible for the rabbit to swim across bodies of water to find food or escape predators. The rabbit gained some fame after a 1979 incident with Jimmy Carter, when he saw one swimming toward his boat. (Missouri Department of Conservation)

A Scheme to Sever the Connection

The Army Corps of Engineers is pushing the St. Johns/New Madrid Levee Project forward, a 60-year-old scheme to construct a 60-foot tall levee to plug this important gap. The proposed New Madrid Levee would sever this last remaining connection between the Mississippi and its Missouri floodplain in order to protect agricultural interests within the floodway.

But the project will have a devastating effect on the environment and the fish and wildlife that rely on the floodplain. The project will also put river communities at increased risk of flooding.

The New Madrid Levee would wall off some 80,000 acres of regularly inundated floodplain from the river, including approximately 50,000 acres of wetlands. This floodplain shelters Mississippi River fish as they spawn and raise their young in its warm, calm waters, protecting them from the river’s colder, higher velocity waters.

Protect the River’s Wildlife

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the project “will result in significant losses of regionally and nationally important fish and wildlife resources which cannot be adequately mitigated.”

In other words, the environmental damage is so extensive that the Corps of Engineers cannot possibly replace the fish and wildlife habitat and the wetlands and floodplain areas it is destroying, which is required as a matter of law.

A Corps of Engineers Independent Review Panel for this project even stated that the “loss of this last remaining connection and its ecosystem functioning would be the ‘straw that broke the camel’s back’ in terms of the total cumulative impact” to the natural ecosystem.

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2013/02/stop-the-new-madrid-levee-to-protect-mississippi-river-wildlife/feed/0Guest Post: It’s Still the Mighty Riverhttp://blog.nwf.org/2011/05/guest-post-it%e2%80%99s-still-the-mighty-river/
http://blog.nwf.org/2011/05/guest-post-it%e2%80%99s-still-the-mighty-river/#commentsThu, 19 May 2011 14:10:15 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/wildlifepromise/?p=22724Read more >]]>This post was written by Amanda Moore, NWF’s Coastal Louisiana Organizer in New Orleans.

I have to admit, I was terrified to visit the overflowing banks of the Mighty Mississippi this week. Not knowing what to expect (no one alive can remember the Mississippi delta at this flood stage), my two-hour preparation meeting had me fretting for my very survival.

American Alligator (credit: Theresa T. Baldwin)

But nightmares and warnings of snakes, alligators, and a current that could sweep you off your feet at a 6-inch depth couldn’t keep me away from this trip. Why? Because this was my shot at seeing the river work—this was my shot at seeing the process that built the rich ecosystem of southeast Louisiana and the land on which the city of New Orleans lies. Though it didn’t help that as we soldiered out to the flooded marsh, seasoned oil field workers watched us from a muster station perched 20 feet in the air, yelling, “Watch out for the snakes!”

With all of the artificial levees lining the river banks, I was out to explore a 10-mile stretch south of New Orleans where only a natural ridge separates the river from the marsh. As you might imagine, it is overtopping at this moment and the muddy river water (critical freshwater and sediment for the marsh) is inundating the adjacent wetlands. I went with an important purpose: to help a team of scientists collect data to better understand the deltaic process of land-building and marsh nourishment. This is a critical concept to understand, as we’re losing about a football field of the delta every 38 minutes largely due to mismanagement of the river.

I survived and it was well-worth the bravery. I did see a snake, but we also saw just what the scientists had hoped to see—a transformed landscape with water steadily flowing over large swaths of marshland. The team, scientists from NWF’s local partner organization, Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, have closely studied this unique stretch of river for years. As we waded knee-deep in the flood, we collected data like flow rates, depth, salinity, and turbidity (how much sediment is in the water). At the end of the day, we visited an old trapper’s canal that the scientists had previously named “Ezra’s Gully” after a team-member. The canal is about a quarter-mile long and stretches from the river to the marsh. As we approached from the marsh end, everyone was shocked to see whitewater rapids pouring out of what is typically a dry or muddy canal. We disembarked from the boat and surveyed an area that I would have sworn was somewhere in the Appalachian Mountains if I didn’t know better. Streams of cool water rushed by through the shade-covered banks and we all sat and stared in amazement. “It’s like a time machine,” said one of the scientists who has studied Louisiana wetlands for decades.

The great thing is, the Mississippi is still mighty and we can restore the process that created and sustained this treasured part of America. Reconnecting the river to the wetlands can help save Louisiana’s coast and protect communities and wildlife that call it home.